A Vision for Heartland Visioning in 2012

In November, I began serving as chair of the Heartland Visioning Process for Topeka and Shawnee County. I’ve been working with Heartland Visioning since its beginning in 2008. This new development is a great opportunity to work with my co-chair, Harry Craig, executive director, William Beteta, and the many community leaders who are focused on making Topeka and Shawnee County a prosperous and progressive community.

A lot of important and exciting things have happened since 2008. Like any big project, Heartland Visioning needs consistent review, revision and refocusing. That’s what we’ll be doing in 2012:

Looking at our process – determining how we can make it better

Reviewing the strategic plan and taking that it back to the community for feedback and approval

Building grassroots leadership capacity in our community – to ensure that there is continued energy, expertise and interest focused on important initiatives like downtown revitalization, riverfront development and many other projects that help create an environment that facilitates economic development, education, quality of life and the arts and culture and ensures that our community moves forward because of the strength of our public/private partnerships.